Taking stock of the women who will excel in crypto in 2023

Author: Daniel Ramirez-Escudero, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Songxue, Golden Finance

In the past few years, the encryption industry has expanded dramatically, and many branches have sprouted on this growing tree of wisdom. . Although the industry has matured, the crypto market is still young and is an ideal playground for any entrepreneurial mindset.

Luckily, women jumped at the chance to join the cryptocurrency gold rush, and their efforts have borne fruit, with notable contributions and successes in the cryptocurrency industry.

Cryptocurrency tends to have more female participation

Cryptocurrency has many fields, but its core function comes from the fusion of technology and finance. Both industries are typically male-dominated, but more and more women are entering the crypto industry as investors, founders or in the workforce.

The 2022 Diversity Study conducted by Forex Suggest surveyed the board members of the 30 largest cryptocurrency companies.

Cryptocurrency company board members and senior employees are divided by gender. Source: Forex Suggest

While there have been some successes, such as Chainalysis, which has nearly 50% women on its board, there is still much work to be done. Many companies are struggling to achieve more than 20% female representation or even just one woman on the board or in a senior role.

Cryptocurrency has been accused of having a “bro” culture, but it appears to be maturing in the other direction. The 2023 Crypto Meetup saw a noticeable increase in female representation in crypto. Victoria Ali, co-CEO of the European Blockchain Conference (ECB), confirmed the steady growth in the number of female attendees and speakers. While it was challenging to find female representation in the cryptocurrency space a few years ago, at the latest ECB speech, women made up 30% of the speakers.

Additionally, Gen Z and Gen Y (millennial) women who are new to investing are more willing to put their money into cryptocurrencies.

The Most Influential Women in Crypto 2023

As 2023 comes to an end, it’s time to honor crypto Some of the hardest working and most influential women in the space, all of whom add value to the entire crypto ecosystem. They are listed in no particular order, and I would like to congratulate and thank them for their efforts.

Cathie Wood: Trader of the Year

Cathie Wood’s field seems to be the financial industry. Before founding ARK Investment Management in 2014, she worked as a portfolio manager at several hedge funds. As of January 2023, the U.S.-based investment firm managed more than $6 billion in investor assets.

As ARK's CEO and chief investment officer, Wood has become a high-profile figure during the recent bear market. Even during the cold spell of digital currencies, Wood made strategic and successful investments.

A significant part of this success stems from her bet on Coinbase. Wood bought shares of Coinbase despite a public lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Coinbase’s equity servicing program. In the first and second quarters of 2023, she purchased nearly three million shares at an average price of $59 per share. After the SEC's accusations were made public, Coinbase's stock price plummeted nearly 20% overnight, and ARK also purchased more Coinbase shares. By the fourth quarter of 2023, as Coinbase's stock price soared, ARK began to reduce its positions, executing the trader's handbook strategy of buying low and selling high.

It seems that Wood has a keen intuition for cryptocurrency market predictions. She also bets on the possible decline of Binance in the U.S. market, which would benefit her investment in Coinbase, as she highlighted in an interview with Bloomberg in June:

“Binance is under increasing regulatory scrutiny for more criminal activities, fraud being one of them; therefore, competition with Coinbase is disappearing, which is a good thing for Coinbase in the long run.”

Just a few months later, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao admitted to the charges brought against him by the U.S. Department of Justice and was forced to resign as CEO after reaching a plea agreement with U.S. authorities. ARK has been profiting from Coinbase trades since November as Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF experienced a 30% gain.

Wood may be considered one of the best high-level traders this year. ARK’s CEO has recently shown interest in the latest hot trend among crypto traders, namely the convergence betweencryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.

Wood also actively pushed for ARK’s own Bitcoin spot trading fund (ETF) to be approved. She is also an avid supporter of Bitcoin and has publicly expressed her support for Bitcoin and its potential as a store of value. She believes that the integration of blockchain technology, decentralized finance (DeFi) and artificial intelligence (AI) will be a transformative force in the financial industry.

Tiffany Fong: Cryptocurrency Whistleblower

Tiffany Fong is a content creator who has reservations about the term “influencer.” She became deeply involved in the crypto space in 2011 when a relative gave her Bitcoin as a Christmas gift. She became well known to the crypto community due to leaked information about Celsius and FTX being provided to her.

While the Celsius controversy was still unfolding, she was contacted by former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, who had been convicted of crypto crimes. After multiple exchanges of messages, Fong conducted a non-journalistic phone interview, which she later made public. In a series of controversial comments,SBF admitted to Fong that he secretly donated money to the US Republican Party, while reporters were shocked because they were both "super liberals".

Fong said the SBF wanted to use her to clarify his failure to pay his $250 million bail. To her disbelief, Fong inadvertently became an influential figure in one of the biggest crypto industry cases of 2023.

In 2023 she covered extensively on SBF's new series of trials on her YouTube channel. There may be surprises in the future, as she claims to be in possession of many unpublished preserved documents of her interactions with the SBF, including audio recordings.

Hester Piece: Gary Gensler’s opponent

SEC defines cryptocurrencies in 2023, after former Chairman Jay Clayton Under the leadership of , the SEC ignited the crypto industry’s powder keg in 2020, filing a case against Ripple, accusing it of committing $1.3 billion in securities fraud through the sale of XRP.

Members of the U.S. Congress and related encryption industry figures have publicly criticized Gary Gensler’s actions. U.S. lawmakers proposed the "SEC Stability Act" and called for Gary Gensler to be fired. Other proposals even seek to cut his salary to $1.

Gary Gensler’s so-called “enforcement supervision” has attracted a lot of criticism, and there are even objections within the SEC. Hester Pierce, a lawyer and SEC commissioner, publicly expressed her disagreement with the head of the agency, claiming that the way Gary Gensler treated the Bitcoin spot ETF application was inconsistent.

In an interview at the Permissionless II conference in Austin, Texas, on September 11, Pierce said that she did not expect the SEC to be "so far behind" in finding solutions to the cryptocurrency regulatory framework. .

Other countries have established clear guidelines and may attract potential crypto companies from the United States. Pierce believes it’s not too late and asked cryptocurrency companies not to give up on the United States. The key to rapprochement between regulators and the cryptocurrency industry may be working together, rather than against each other.

Many cryptocurrency advocates would like to see her replace Gensler. Currently, the crypto community is grateful for the way she stood up to Gensler against the U.S. crypto industry.

Sandy Kaul: Bringing Institutional Investors into Cryptocurrency

Sandy Kaul is Franklin Templeton Templeton, an investment fund manager with approximately $1.4 trillion in assets under management. Her relationship with the crypto space dates back to 2016, when she discovered the potential of Ethereum’s smart contracts.

Kaul advocates investment funds that allocate a percentage of their funds to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Franklin Templeton applied for a Bitcoin Spot Trading Fund (ETF) in September 2023. Along with other applicants, it is seeking to become the first Bitcoin spot trading fund to receive SEC approval.

Kaul is promoting Bitcoin as a store of value. She believes companies should allocate a certain percentage of their financial reserves to Bitcoin. In an interview with Bitcoin educator Natalie Brunell, sheeven called for every country to hold Bitcoin in its fiscal reserves.

Franklin Templeton’s approach to cryptocurrency may have been influenced by Kaul’s deep understanding of the field’s potential.

Elizabeth Stark: Light Beyond the Tunnel

Elizabeth Stark He is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, the company behind Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling solution, the Lightning Network (LN).

Stack is managing a major project to make Bitcoin a suitable currency for everyday transactions and realize Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of using Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer digital cash . In order for a store-of-value asset like Bitcoin to also function as a currency, the Bitcoin network needs a second-layer scaling solution like the Lightning Network.

Over the past two years, Stark’s team has helped the Lightning Network grow more than 1,200% in routing transactions.

The developers implemented a proposal execution layer of LN that allows any newer channel state to replace any older channel. This upgrade simplifies channel management, enabling users to revise outdated channel status without broadcasting the entire history on the blockchain. The update may enable users to resolve disputes efficiently and minimize transaction costs.

LN’s strong status means its use cases have a solid foundation.

Cynthia Lummis: Regulating the Good and Evil of Cryptocurrencies

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis< strong>Publicly admit to owning Bitcoin. She claims to have purchased her first Bitcoin back in 2013, earning her the nickname “Crypto Queen.”

As a result of the FTX debacle, Ramis and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act.

As a politician, Lamis emphasized the positive aspects of Bitcoin mining, a hot and controversial topic. She mentioned how Bitcoin mining helps stabilize energy networks, declaring that “Bitcoin is cleaning up the environment” in recycling energy abuse.

Lamisalso sought to address the illegal use of cryptocurrencies. She led calls for the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against Binance and TEDA for allegedly helping to fund Hamas.

Given how often other senators like Elizabeth Warren have railed against Bitcoin, it’s refreshing for politicians to place the blame on illegal actors rather than Bitcoin itself.

Cryptocurrency: A golden opportunity for women

Cryptocurrency is like the gold rush of the 19th century, but in a different form. Emerging industries require a variety of talents, and everyone has room to play. Diversity in the workforce has been proven to make companies more efficient, as there is less "groupthink" and more open ways of working, leading to greater creativity.

Two centuries ago, the concept of women’s equality was almost non-existent. However, cryptocurrencies provide a level playing field for women and men as well as financial inclusion, and countless women are contributing to the development of cryptocurrencies and Web3 every day.